Guest Review by Johnny O.

I believe there is an old saying, “Pie is Where You Find It” (well, maybe it isn’t an old saying) . In any case, I was fortunate enough to find pie on the opening day of the Hillsboro Saturday Market. As I walked down the row of vendors I spotted some little (shall we say petite) pies at the Pie Spot booth. One of the first things that caught my eye (besides the pie) was their sign which read: “PIE SPOT – Est. * Now” Turns out they have actually been in business for a little over a year so the sign is a little out of date but none-the-less clever.

After discussing the available pie flavors, I settled on a triple berry “SPOT” for $3.50. Visually, these mini pies are impressive.

In fairness to the rest of this review, the pie was purchased on Saturday morning and was not consumed until Sunday afternoon. So, the optimum pie tasting window had passed. That said, the pie filling was wonderful. Its fruit filling was the perfect balance of tart and sweet.

The crust was very good and held up well considering the pie was not consumed for well over 24 hours after purchase. It was thick and flaky. While I understand that some would be critical of the amount of crust, I happen to love crust so I found the proportion of filling to crust just right. But, beware, this is not a pie for thin crust people.

Overall, I would give this pie a rating of 3 ¾ slices. It is really quite good and would probably get a higher score but my wife makes pies in the 4 to 5 pie rating scale so, considering my obvious personal bias, I can’t rate PIE SPOT higher.

Editor’s Note: We previously wrote about Pie Spot when they were at the Spring Beer and Wine Festival in Portland. I had their Apple and Hazelnut “spots”. I concur, they’re very good little pies, good fillings. The only knock would be that it is a lot of crust for the amount of pie. But, it works, and I think it is done so thick to help the little guys keep their shape. I like to call these the cupcakes of pie.

As I understand it, the folks at Pie Spot are looking to open a storefront someday. Until then, their goods are offered at the Hillsboro Farmer’s Market and at several cafes and restaurants around town – find “spots” at: http://www.pie-spot.com/pie_spots.html or find them on Facebook

Related posts:

1. PIE Spot Finds a Spot
2. Pie Review: Queen of Hearts Baking Company – Gluten Free Berry Pie
3. Pie Review: Peach Marionberry, Bipartisan Cafe

UPDATE: This reviewer really liked Olympic Provisions Pork Rillette Hand Pie, but Food & Wine Magazine liked it even more. The dish was named to Food & Wine’s top 10 restaurant dishes for 2010 – so needless to say, I think it’s good.

Guest Review by Paul W.

I’ll admit, when I headed out to Olympic Provisions, I expected something completely different than what I got. It is in an industrial area with terrible parking. I thought it would be a charcuterie shop, full of sausages for sale and with a couple tables you could sit at to enjoy something off the small menu. What I got, was a full-on restaurant, more like a charcuterie version of a tapas bar.

But anyway, this isn’t a restaurant review, this is a pie review. Olympic Provisions only has one pie on the menu – the Pork Rillette Pie. And believe me, it’s the only pie they need.

Presentation: Very nice. A round white plate surrounds the beautiful golden brown half-moon shaped hand pie. A garnish of cornichons, pickled onions and whole grain mustard not only fills the plate, but compliments the pie very nicely.

Crust: Golden brown, flaky, and full of buttery flavor. The filling was so good I could have done with a little less crust, but it was really, really nice.

Filling: What can I say, pork rillettes (pork cooked slowly in fat until it falls apart) are perfect all on there own. Therefore, they are even better stuffed inside a delicious crust. They must have a quality pork purveyor, because this stuff was just full of porky goodness.

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 slices. My only negative is that it is a hand pie. Meaning, it is pretty small. Luckily, they are only 4 bucks, so you can buy 2.

Check out Olympic Provisions @ 107 SE Washington St, Portland 97214, www.olympicprovisions.com

Related posts:

1. Pie Review: Random Order Coffeehouse and Bakery, Chipotle Pork Pie
2. Pie Review: Baker & Spice – Blackberry Hand Pie
3. Lovely Day for a Guinness Pork Pie

the nation revels
in glorious crust we trust
it’s pie day, 1/23

Related posts:

1. Get Ready for National Pie Day 2011!

Have you ever wondered why it is that we add “pie” to the end of words to describe our loved-ones (ex: “sweetie-pie”)? I had never thought about it much,  as it seems to come naturally.

Wikipedia says that most terms of endearment “are concrete nouns that have favorable associations, either with a sweet taste or the nature of the relationship”, which explains why we would use “pie” to describe a loved one here in modern-day America. But has that always been the case?

According to etymonline the term “sugar” wasn’t coined as a term of endearment until 1930. So if we weren’t using “sugar”, we inevitably weren’t using “sugar pie”, right?

Given that sweet pies weren’t the dominant form of pie in America until the 20th century, I’d be surprised to find that it was a common term of endearment prior to then. According to Time, “A cookbook from 1796 listed only three types of sweet pies; a cookbook written in the late 1800s featured 8 sweet pie varieties; and by the 1947 the Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking listed 65 different varieties of sweet pies”.

So if the prominent pies at the time were meat pies, tacking pie onto a word would probably not have been a flattering nickname.

I personally think we add “pie” to terms of endearment because 1.) obviously, pie is sweet and 2.) making a pie itself is a labor of love,  and the things that we’re truly endeared to require patience and care, just like pie. That’s just my theory, though.

Image courtesy of Grin and Bake It

No related posts.

A fellow named Joe Hill once said:

“Work and pray, live on hay, you’ll get pie in the sky when you die. “

I say – why not “Work, Pray, Eat Pie Everyday”?

This blog will cover all things pie. Where to get it. How to make it. Why we love it. Stay tuned!

Image courtesy of thebittenword.com available under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.

No related posts.